Philosophy Versus Science

[GrandizerII]

I am skeptical that any standardized test can assign a number score to a person's intellectual humility or open-mindedness. These are things (as Aristotle points out) that are developed over a lifetime, and manifest themselves in ways that are individual and unpredictable.

To be clear, the researchers of this study didn't just rely on standardized tests assessing various forms of reasoning abilities, but also on two scales for measuring intellectual dispositions/virtues. Even if these scales may not be the best measures of what they were designed to capture, the researchers had limited options and could only go with what scales had been used among the sample of interest.

That said, you may still be right to be skeptical here. However, in such fields as experimental psychology, it is assumed that these (and other psychological constructs) can be somewhat captured by scales, provided these scales have been tested properly and shown to be both reliable and valid. As for predicting future states/outcomes, some of these measures may also be backed up by studies demonstrating their predictive powers.

And honestly, we do have pretty good measures for such things as open-mindedness anyway. In fact, open-mindedness is one of the five main factors in the OCEAN model of measuring personality.

I would certainly hope that reading good books would help a person become aware of these virtues, and help think about how we can live them in the real world. This seems to work for some people, and not for others.

Well, as you know, philosophy students don't just read books, they are taught how to critically analyze arguments and justify their views in a systematic manner. They are also trained to write really well and advised to think about HOW and WHY they think what they think. It should come as no surprise then that majoring in philosophy helps boost one's logical and verbal reasoning AND various intellectual virtues.

As to the rest of what you said, I think I made my stance clear on this pages ago and not really sure what else I can say on the matter. For me, philosophy is the parent of all sciences and continues to be a guiding parent. Parents don't just rear their children until these children become adults, and then they are let go. Parents may continue to lend support to their children even when these children are working and living independent lives and financially supporting their parents. It's sort of like this with philosophy and science. There is constant interaction between philosophy and science, so that philosophy has it uses for science and science has its uses for philosophy. There is no versus going on here.